Frankfurt University faces student protests over conference on Muslim headscarves
Frankfurt University has been rocked by student protests over an academic conference on the Muslim practice of women wearing headscarves.
Students accused the university of promoting Islamophobia with the conference, which is scheduled to take place next month.
The protests come despite the fact the conference is set to feature Islamic theologians and women who support the wearing of headscarves as well as critics of the practice.
Students have targeted the conference with social media posts of young women holding up signs with slogans including “No room for racism” and “I’m not in the mood for hate speech”.
They have called for the dismissal of Prof Susanne Schröter, the head of the university’s Islamic research centre and the organiser of the conference.
But the university has refused to bow to the protests. Prof Birgitta Wolff, the president of the university, has defended the right to “freedom of scholarship and academic discourse” and accused the students of acting as a “self-appointed discourse police”.
The conference in fact has its origins in earlier protests at an exhibition on contemporary Islamic fashion at Frankfurt’s Museum of Applied Arts, which students accused of trivialising the Muslim tradition of hijab.
Prof Schröter organised the conference on ‘The Islamic headscarf: symbol of dignity or oppression’ in response to those protests.
Speakers scheduled to speak at the event include Alice Schwarzer, one of Germany’s best known feminists, and Necla Kelek, a prominent critic of traditional Islam.
They also include Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, a male Islamic theologian who opposes the wearing of headscarves, and Khola Maryam Hübsch, a well-known journalist who wears a headscarf.
But students posting on an anonymous Instagram account under the hashtag “Schröter_raus”, or “Schröter out” this week accused the event of “playing into the hands of the far-Right”.
“Especially today, with the rising appeal of far-Right populism, women wearing the headscarf in Germany are victims of violence,” a post on the account read. The account has since been taken down.
“The accusation of Islamophobia becomes a blanket argument against any possible criticism of Islam,” Prof Schröter responded. “If freedom of expression is no longer possible, then that is the end of a free democratic society.”
The university’s student committee distanced itself from the protests. “The topic of the headscarf seems to us to be an excuse,” Fatma Keser, a spokesman, said. “We think it is important Islam is researched. The hate campaign wants to prevent that.”
“Statements like ‘Schröter_raus’ are beyond any scientific or democratic discourse. They are therefore unacceptable. Such statements have nothing to do with the quality requirements of an academic discourse and are unworthy of anyone who identifies themselves as members of our university,” Prof Wolff, the university president, said.